Twitter suspends account tracking Musk’s jet after billionaire touts 'commitment to free speech'
Twitter was previously accused of 'shadow banning' the account
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The Twitter account that tracked the flights of billionaire Elon Musk's private aircraft has been suspended.
Jack Sweeney, a University of Central Florida student who operated @ElonJet, confirmed the suspension, posting a screenshot that shows that the account had been "permanently suspended" after "careful review."
"Your account is permanently in read-only mode, which means you can't Tweet, Retweet, or Like content. You won't be able to create new accounts," it says.
This comes after Sweeney claimed an anonymous Twitter employee explained to him that his account was "visibility limited/restricted to a severe degree internally" on Dec. 2.
"Elon might have told Ella Irwin to do that," he told The New York Post on Monday. "I don’t know what the cause was. It most likely was him, I would assume."
SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 13, 2019. (REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo / Reuters Photos)
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That came just weeks after Musk wrote that he had not banned the @ElonJet account due to his "commitment to free speech."
Musk purchased Twitter in October for $44 billion and became the company's chief executive.
"My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk," he tweeted on Nov. 6.
A sign is pictured outside the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, on Oct. 26, 2022. (AP/Godofredo A. Vásquez / AP Images)
In January, the New York Times reported that Musk sent a direct message to Sweeney saying that he would give him $5,000 to remove the account because it was a "security risk."
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However, Sweeney said he would only consider doing so for $50,000 and an internship at one of his companies and Musk then reportedly blocked Sweeney, according to Protocol.
The tracker is still available on other platforms.